"Tomahawk"

Tonight I saw an awesome Western called "Tomahawk" (1951), which was based in part on a real life character named Jim Bridger, whose name might ring a bell if you remember your American History lessons about Lewis & Clark and other trailblazers, mountain men and fur trappers who explored the western US and helped open it up to settlers and the Army. Bridger was friendly with the Indians, and so the Army used him as an envoy to help solve territorial disputes. His assistance led to several peace treaties between the US and the Sioux, and in "Tomahawk" we see once again another real life character, the great Chief Red Cloud, who was portrayed in "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee", which I was not able to finish due to a dvd malfunction as mentioned last week.

Besides being the film's title, "Tomahawk" is also Red Cloud's nickname for his friend Bridger, who is a rugged frontiersman and also has a Cheyenne wife. In the story, which takes place in Wyoming, Bridger - played by the craggily handsome Van Heflin - has been hired as a scout by an Army Colonel who is also a friend. The Colonel wants Bridger to ride ahead and negotiate with Red Cloud about a fort the Army wants to build along a mail route that also is a settler's road. The fort is to be constructed in order to provide protection for the mail riders and the occasional settler who will be passing through Indian country. Bridger's mission is to convince Red Cloud and his people that the Army fort is not a provocation or a danger to the tribe. He is able to persuade the Chief, and the fort is put into place. The mail is able to be delivered through Sioux territory without problem, and a covered wagon is escorted through as well, carrying not homesteaders but a two person Travelling Show; a middle-aged male magician and his show-stopping singer partner, played by the knockout Yvonne DeCarlo.

She provides the romantic interest in the film. At first, she is solicited by an Army Lieutenant who is clearly a bad guy. He hates Indians and is out to subvert the peace treaty in any way he can. But Jim Bridger is onto him, and what's more, he suspects the Lieutenant as the culprit in some personal business that I cannot divulge, just in case you ever buy the awesome 3 dvd Western set that I purchased, and see "Tomahawk" for yourself. I must say, having seen two of the films from the ten movie set, that some of these "B" Westerns were just as good as many of the more famous ones. "Daltons" from the other night was an A Plus, and I'll give "Tomahawk" a B Plus. It's got an involving story, it fairly depicts the meetings between the Army and the Sioux, led by Red Cloud, that both caused disputes and led to treaties. The unfair treatment of the Sioux is shown, but also the attempt to make peace and share the land for mutual benefit is also shown.

Because we are in the Era Of Great Screenwriting, much story is told about the history of the Army's attempts to set up United States authority in the west, regardless of the Indians having been there first, which is why I said at the beginning of the blog that Jim Bridger was just one character in the movie, rather than the sole focus. In "Tomahawk", he is the fulcrum on which the story balances and then tilts towards war, which is shown as an end result not of diplomatic breakdown but of devious subversion of official peace agreements by individual men who are filled with hate and fear.

This seems to be the case in all of history.

But in Westerns, as in life, the Good Guys always win. Bridger ultimately restores the peace and negotiates an agreement whereby the Army will abandon it's fort. The Sioux were given back their land, though this final agreement only lasted thirty years until the move to put Indians onto reservations began in the 1890s.

That happened just 70 years before I was born. But in movies and books, it seems like a thousand years ago.

The telling of history depends on who tells it, and what is told, and what is left out, and how the official story is presented.

I am certainly not anti-White Man, in the story of the developing of the land mass of North America. If you look at the anthropological Big Picture, it was going to happen because of the European tendency toward invention and migration. The White Man was the Man Of Science and Travel. He was ahead of the game, depending on how much you stake your belief system in so-called human progress as being based only on technological advancement. But he could have been a better leader, that much is clear.

That was the message of the Jim Bridgers of the world, at that time. The explorers of the West, who got to know the Indians and made friends with them, before the Army came into the picture. ////

Two Big Thumbs Up for "Tomahawk". :)

We had a nice morning in church, and good singing too.

See you in the morning.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)